Dh37.4m irrigation project approved

Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Deputy Ruler of Dubai, UAE Minister of Finance and Industry and Chairman of Dubai Municipality, has approved a Dh37.4 million project for setting up irrigation mains for the greening of the desert.

This was announced by Mohammed Saeed Hareb, First Assistant to the Director General of Dubai Municipality, who noted that the project is made to supply irrigation water to four locations along the boundary line between Dubai and Abu Dhabi emirates, as well as for the projects of Emaar and Dubai Investment Park, and the landscaping of interchanges and the median along the Emirates Ring Road.

He noted that the works involve construction of about 51 km of AC pipes with diameters of 800 mm, 600 mm and 400 mm together with two booster stations. The project is located along the Emirates Road with an approximate length of 26 km and along Dubai – Abu Dhabi boundary line with an approximate length of 25 km.

Hareb said the contract for the project was awarded to a local contracting company at a total cost of Dh37.4 million with a contract period of 548 days including 30 days' mobilisation period. The Contracts and Purchasing Depart-ment of the municipality would soon complete procedures for the implementation of the project.

Statistics show that Dubai's greenery rose by 20.5 per cent over a three-year period from 1998 to 2000, with nearly 4.6 million square metres of land being turned to green at the end of 2000.

The civic body's landscaping plans for the city aims at turning eight per cent of the land into green areas.

According to statistics released by the Statistics Centre of Dubai Municipality, the total green areas in Dubai in 1998 were 3.8 million sq.m. which rose to 4.2 million sq. m. in 1999. Overall, the greenery, as at the end of 2000, included green fields of some 3.6 million square metres, ground covers of 744,000 sq.m and a total of 213,000 sq.m of areas with flowers and plants.

Apart from the greenery, the number of trees and shrubs planted by Dubai Municipality in various parts of the emirate also rose remarkably during the period under review.

More than 2.2 million trees and shrubs, including nearly 25,000 palm trees, were planted at different areas of Dubai in 2000. Also during the same year, plant fences were set up in an area of over 207,000 metres.